The Opposite of Tidy (Blog Post #6)

This WordItOut image shows the different text that was used in the book, The Opposite of Tidy, by Carrie Mac. Each word represents something that has happened throughout the course of the book. For example the word "sleeping," in the book Junie's mother always sleeps on her armchair, it's like her bed. Another word is "illness," Junie's mother has an illness for hoarding, she's a hoarder. Which makes life really hard for Junie, because she has to cope with her mother all alone. Her father had left them for another women, that's why the word "Women:" is in the above image, because it's a big matter. Names that are shown in the above are, Wade and Tabitha. Wade is Junie's boyfriend, and Tabitha is her best friend. Junie feels the need to hide her identity because of the state she lives in. She is embarrassed to introduce her boyfriend to her mother.
This is why the social issue for this book is family/friends relationships, because Junie finds it difficult to keep up with everything.

The Opposite of Tidy (Blog Post #5)

The drawing above shows two sides. The novel, The Opposite of Tidy, is based upon two sides where a family is separated and has to go through many struggles. On the left side, it's Junie and her hoarder mother. Junie's mother has a disorder of hoarding, and so Junie has to go through many obstacles alone without her father, who is shown on the left side. Junie's father is shown on the left side with a women because he left Junie and her mother for another women. He couldn't take it anymore living under a roof with his hoarder wife and her junk, so he left her with the women who was suppose to help Junie's mother get well. Therefore you can see the social issue, family relationships, in the drawing above.

The Opposite of Tidy (Blog Post #4)

 

This quote relates to the book, The Opposite of Tidy by Carrie Mac, because in the book, Mr. Rawley, the father of the main character, Junie, betrays Junie and her mother by cheating on her mother for a women who was supposed to help Junie’s mother with her disorder. Mr. Rawley, couldn’t deal with his wife because of her hoarding disorder, he had enough of her. This is why he made the decision of moving on, and leaving his wife.

The quote tells you that betrayal can come from your friends and loved ones as well. In the book this is exactly what happens. Not only does Mrs. Rawley feels betrayed, but Junie as well. This is why she hates her father’s girlfriend. Junie feels betrayed because her father left her with her mother who is in a horrible condition, and therefore feels hatred towards her father.

 

Today's Police - Brutal or Not?

There are handcuffed teenagers beaten bloody with guns. Unarmed people who are shot and killed, cops firing guns carelessly into busy streets.

It is likely to say, today’s police men and women are brutal. Although there are some polices who are not cruel, but many of them are truly vicious. Constantly on the news you hear cases where police men and women are shooting unarmed people or even children. There are many true stories about the way prisoners are treated.

In Florida, some prison guards forced a prisoner to stand in a shower stall, and then blasted scalding hot water on him until his skin began to shrivel away from his body and he died.  Another prisoner said he begged for his life before collapsing in the shower. This reality shows what police men and women do not only to prisoners but other people as well. When police get caught treating people this way they always say, “I thought he had a gun.”

These police officers most of the time are hardly ever punished. Another example where a police men killed a person was in Ferguson, Missouri. An unarmed teenage boy was shot multiple times by a police officer. The teenage boy died on the spot. Later on, the grand jury decided to not indict the police officer. The U.S Department of Justice said they found evidence proving that the police officer shot the teenager in self-defence. Although, when you think back, we know that the boy was unarmed so why did the police officer feel the need to defend himself? It doesn’t make any sense as to why the grand jury decided to make this decision, except for coming to a conclusion that they might have done this to encourage it for monetary gain. This shows that its system is screwed up because they (the government) allow it.

There are police men and women out in the world who are taking advantages of their positions by shooting and killing people and just being very cruel and brutal. Some people feel that these police officers are getting out of hand. The public feels that today’s police officers are brutal and this opinion should not be ignored, because one day it might be them who’s shot by an armed police officer “accidently.”

 

                                                                             ~ Coldmirror

  

Good Qualities in a Leader

The most important quality a leader should have is equality. I say equality because no one wants to have a leader that makes their own decisions. A leader should listen and understand their group members, and take ideas into consideration. A leader should treat each and every person equally. Evidence from the book, Ender's Game, that supports this thought is in chapter 9, when Peter wants to become a leader, Valentine doesn't believe that he has good leadership skills because of his personality. Peter is rude, arrogant, and a bully, equality doesn't fit his personality. Peter is very convincing and forces people to do things, and if they don't listen he threatens to kill them. For example, in chapter 9 of the book, when Peter asks Valentine to be his partner in becoming a leader, Valentine doesn't really want to do anything with him, so Peter threatens to kill her, so gives in. Which is not a good quality. This is why I believe that equality is a good quality every leader should posses.

The Boy In Striped Pajamas

Retell:

The movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, is about a boy named Bruno, who is the son of a Nazi commander. Bruno is coerced to move from his old home in Berlin where all his friends lived, to a new place where there was no one living except for them (well that’s what Bruno thought at first). Bruno was a young boy who loved explore. One day, Bruno goes into a forest that was near their new home, and he continues to go deeper into the forest. Bruno then comes upon a fence, and behind the fence he sees a boy, who looked like Bruno’s age, wearing striped pajamas. He had no shoes. The two boys quickly become friends and they a lot about each other and discover how different their lives are. Bruno constantly visits Shmuel, the boy in stripped pajamas, and he also brings food for the boy to eat. Bruno would also bring some of his toys so that they can both play. One day, Shmuel tells Bruno that his father is missing. Bruno then decides to help his friend find his father, but to get past the fence Bruno needed to wear the stripped pajamas and needed a shovel to dig up a hole to get through. Shmuel brings Bruno striped pajamas, and Bruno brings a shovel from home. Once Bruno got past the fence, the two boys went looking for Shmuel’s father. The boys accidentally end up with a group of people going into the gas chambers, and that was the end of them.

Relate:

This movie, the boy in striped pajamas, relates to the event that happened in Rwanda. The country was going through poverty because of social, economic, and political issues. This caused the nation to fall apart, because of the Hutu, an ethnic group. The Hutu’s began to blame the other group Tutsi for causing trouble in their nation. Later on, a Hutu president was killed, this sparked commotion in the nation. The Hutu’s rioted, blaming the Tutsi for murdering the president. Genocides began to take place, the Hutu’s executed the Tutsi inhabitants in large numbers.

This event relates to the movie because mass murder of a specific ethnic group took place in both scenarios’. In the movie, Jewish people are killed in gas chambers, because they were accused for the difficulties that was taking place in the country at the time. The same thing happened to the Tutsi population, they were also executed.

Reflect:

After watching the movie, I felt a deep pang of anger. It was really heartbreaking to see the two boys die. The movie made me realize the importance of a child's innocence that may lead them to do drastic things, and how unbearable damages could corrupt a young ones’ mind. Shumel, had went through a lot of hardships. Even Bruno, though he was not a child soldier or anything like that, he had seen a lot at a young age. This shows that certain events can change a person greatly.

 

The Opposite Of Tidy (Blog Post #3)

The song by We The Kings – Sad Song – is about love and being there unconditionally for one another. This relates to the social issue family/friend relationships, in the book The Opposite of Tidy, by Carrie Mac, because throughout the book the main character, Junie, feels lost. Without her father’s support she doesn’t know how to deal with her mother who is a compulsive hoarder. Junie’s father had left Junie and her mother, with the women who was supposed to help Junie’s mother with her disorder, but ended up breaking the family. Along came a boy in Junie’s life. She was a sad girl at one point and then became the happiest girl. She felt loved and belonged. With her new boyfriend she was happy all the time. But there were a lot of lies that she had told him, she lied about her identity. Junie was embarrassed that if she told her boyfriend about her mother he wouldn’t want to stay with her that is why she felt that she needed to lie to him. Throughout the book, the lies keep piling on, but then one day everything is revealed. Junie’s boyfriend finds out about her lies, and so he leaves her. Junie feels heartbroken. Not only because of losing her boyfriend but also the fact that her mother’s disorder is getting bad every day. This is where the song Sad Song comes in. In the song it says, “Without you, I feel broke. Like I’m half of a whole. Without you, I’ve got no hand to hold. Without you, I feel torn. Like a sail in a storm. Without you, I'm just a sad song.”

The lyrics of this song really relates to how Junie feels in the book.